Home Ownership

Home ownership comes with joy and challenges. A couple weeks ago was a challenge. The dryer (that came with the house) decided it didn't want to dry clothes any more. I could go into a long discussion about the basics of dryers and how a thermal fuse works, but if you really want to know, there is great information on Appliance Repair.net. Seriously, if you can follow directions and use a screwdriver you can fix quite a few things.

I even found this video that helped me test the operation of the dryer before I went out to buy a replacement thermal fuse.


The internet has made some things so much easier.

I know this doesn't look like much, but when you don't have the thermal fuse that goes on those two wires it's kind of a big deal. 

You can pick up a thermostat and thermal fuse kit at the local appliance parts place (about $30 what we did), or you can order the kit from Amazon (about $10 but it takes a few days). Before replacing the thermostat and the thermal fuse, we cleaned the dryer ducting from the machine to outside the house. We also vacuumed inside the machine to make sure there wasn't an obstruction. In hindsight, I should have replaced the flexible section of dryer ducting, but that's easy enough to do another day.

We stopped by the local home improvement warehouse to see if they had the parts kits (they didn't) and we could have picked up this steal of a used dryer for only $450, list price only $999!

So... home ownership can be a challenge. But, if you're will to put forth a little effort cleaning out your own dryer vent, and replacing a couple small parts, you can save a couple bucks, and you might still have time to go outside and play.